Beacons

Everyone I ski with on every powder day - in bounds or out!!!

The biggest slide I have ever been caught in was in ounds at Alpine Meadows - 4-foot fracture line from wind loading the day after a storm...broke my ulna! was burried waist deep, got pulled out by a telemarker who saw it release...scary shit, like being in a river of snow!

Anyone who is a serious skier in Utah or the Sierra is insane not to own a full BC setup, probe, shovel, beacon, cell phone, radio, first aid! And ONLY ride with people who have the same!

These diiots I see hiking alpine BC without the right gear or any knowledge are begging to die, and each avy death pushes the resorts one step closer to closing the ropes forever!!!
 
I ride with my tracker everyday BC and any in-bound pow day.

Pack, shovel, probe, first-aid, survival gear, fod and water, and partners are essential every time. Being in the BC without it just fucking retarded.

There is a interesting thread over on TGR on what people carry in the BC. Here is my list. Not all of this goes out everytime, but most of it is usually with me.

DaKine Poacher Pack

BCA Tracker

G3 300cm Probe

BD Tele Lynx Shovel

Med Kit

Sam Splint

Life Link Snow Saw

Small Maglite

Duct Tape - some on maglite and some on ski pole

Topo Map of area

Lighter, Matches, and Fire starter goo

2 Glow sticks

Cell Phone (off)

Compass

8x Magnifier and Snow pit card

Slopemeter

Space Blanket

Extra Contacts + solution

Extra layers - usually compressed down jacket

Extra Batteries - just in case beacon dies (I never let my tracker get below about 75% battery power) + for maglite

Extra Flexon Boot Buckles - Love the boots, hate the buckles, and sometime they need to be replaces while skiing

Sunscreen + sunglasses

Carmex

Bandana

2 extra power bars, 2 extra cliff goo crap

Normal Food and Water

Hand Warmers

DaKine Leatherman tool

Toe Nail Clippers - ingrown toenails suck

head lamp

BD Whippet Poles

Whistle

Optional stuff

60cm BD Raven Ice Axe

Crampons

Homemade Cornice Rope

basically, most of that stuff just stays in my bag at all time.

Beacons, even trackers, should be practiced with as much as possible. Batteries checked frequently. Even inbounds I often feel weird without it.
 
In regards to a beacon, I've gotta read up on this but I keep reading the reviews and they say they have anolog and that to find people. Do these beacons also send out a signal if your the one stuck underneath??
 
I used to use analog, now use a digital beacon, and to be good with the analog I had to practice a lot. Digitals are easier , faster, and hard to fuck up with.

Beacons have either a transmit or recieve setting.

When you are skiing you have you beacon in transmit. In the event that you are buried all the other members of your group turn their beacons to recieve while you beacon continues to trasmit. The beacons in receveing mode then pick up the signal of your beacon and hopefully they know how to use them.

anyone considering skiing in the BC should really take classes. not just one, but as many as you can.
 
yeah you definitely need a beacon, thats a really good list that guy posted up there, but if I were you I would get a BCA Tracker, its the easiest to use by far. My friends and I all got those and we practiced a few hours and pretty much had them down.
 
tracker is what I use and suggest to everybody new to the BC. It is easy to learn and hard to fuck up. It doesn't have the range of other models but once you pick up the signal it is insanely fast.

even so, you should practice frequently, especially multiple burials.
 
i cant believe the people who ski AK backcountry either alone or without a beacon/probe/shovel. it really dosnt make annny sense at all. all of those a definitly a essential. i dont wear one resort skiing, our resort has a very tight and anal avy rule. but once they clear it, the snows the best in the world.
 
Yeah, me and my buddies use them, but having them isnt good enough, you must know how to use it.
 
Whoa... this is a really interesting and informative thread. I never know what all people have in there packs when skiing. like, you seem people and think, what can possible be in there? now i know that there is a lot of legit stuff that can help save you. Thanks iggyskier.
 
I want my friends and I to each get one this year so we can do more backcountry stuff. WA has some of the best backcountry in the us (I also want a snowmobile
 
you have to take a class as well. Avies are easy to avoid if you are actively protecting yourself from them.

Where in WA are you going to be skiing? I'm in tacompton and should be doing a fair amount of BC this year around Rainier and Snoqualmie.
 
Shit, so yeah its definate now, i ski that area. Alpine is sick but i need to invest in my shit so i dont "got dead"
 
do any of you guys use AT adapters? Or do you all have at bindings? I'm thinking of getting adapters since i don't have a designated touring ski.
 
"tour wreckers" work ok as long as you don't use them much. Mine gradually just broke down. The do work for smallish touring, but the weight gets to be a lot if you doing multiple hour tours.

They get the job done. They are heavy, not extremely smooth, ackward, but they are much better than bootpacking. if you can afford it getting a dedicated AT ski is worth it. My at set up is Gotamas with freeriders. If you look you can get a setup cheap. I sold a pair of Ak enemies with skins for $175 last year. Freeriders can be found for $250. So, for around $450 you can find a good touring set up if you look.

another thing to consider is maybe getting trekkers for the time being and wait until some company comes out and with a more durable touring binding. The new Naxo is suppose to be much beefier. You can get it for $325 new with fat brakes.

What will be perfect will be a touring binding with some metal, 14 din, lock down. A lot of people could careless about weight, but don't want to deal with the hassle of trekkers. They just want a bindings they you can ski as hard as a normal binding, yet still tour on. Hopefully it will happen soon.....end of little rant.
 
I see your selling your spats, that's sad indeed. I'm guessing you've never toured on them, there's a chance i'd do short tours on mine. They're like snow shoes.
 
haha I've actually though about throwing my freeriders on them.

But basically....with my Igneous FFF I doubt the spats will see many powder days. And for smaller days where sometime will be spend on groomers the Vicious will get the go.

I may end up keeping them for days at certain areas (Alpental and Baker) but im curious to see what type of interest people have in them.

If I do end up selling them it wont be for awhile. That...and I'm waiting for project vulcan or the really strong desire to get a Tabla Rosa of G-Funkenstein.
 
just ordered a BCA Tracker. i've been putting it off for like 2 years because i cant get any of my poor ass friends to get one, but what the hell i can't use that as an excuse forever.
 
yea even though i don't ski backcountry, if i did, and didn't have the money for the stuff, i'd be like "mom, do u want me to die." then that would pretty much require my parents to buy me stuff.
 
Like the rest have said......having the tools and equipment is only yhe first part.....def. take as many classes as possible in Avalanche safety but also check into some wilderness first responder, CPR, and basif first aid classes......

Here's what I got in my pack:

K2 PhotoGlacier Backpack

Leatherman Wave Multi Tool

Dakine collapsing alu. shovel

Collapsing Avy. Probe

Snow Saw

50ft. paracord

10 ft. duct tape (Some wrapped around pencil, some around pole)

Locking Carabiner

Carabiner

Black Diamond Headlamp w/ Led's

Spare Batteries

Radio

Cell

Map

Garmin Etrex GPS

Compass

Magnesium Firestarter

Waterproof matches

Additional layers of clothes

Mittens

10ft. of steel wire

First aid Kit

superglue

Powerbar

GU

Water

PLus a few additional items.......

all said, pack prob weighs 15-20lbs.....more with photo gear.........but it's saved my and my buds many a time.
 
In Tahoe the local Community College does an Avy I and Avy II course every Fall semester.

Highly recommended and when the storms hit right you also get some great turns during the class...

I stopped using "Alpine Treckers"...I mounted a pair of Naxo AT binding on a pair of 181 K2 Chiefs...Awsome touring setup...but the skins are huge and weigh alot...

This season I am stepping up to a touring boot with a vibram sole. Even though you dont get as many turns when you hike for it, the runs you do get are all memerable and SICK!!

I hiked the cross on Mt.Tallac on January 3rd last year after 21-feet of snow, so so plump and deep!!

Jan-Feb in Tahoe last year was ALL TIME EPIC -

4K of Vert off of Heavenly down to 395!

9500 of Vert near Mt. Whitney

3.5K Vert Car Shuttles of Mt. Rose
 
i was at mt rose today and jizzed when i saw the BC run on the backside below the parking lot. Is there a way to shuttle that? I didnt see any roads down there and i dont want to trek more than a mile through deep shit snow.
 
^are you talking about the avy chutes they recently opened? If so the hwy runs right under it, but i'm guessing not.
 
I think he's talking about skiing from east bowl road down to near 395. I think waynewong said he did that. It seems like that would be one hell of a ride back up because you have to get over to Galena then up mt. rose hwy again. I did the run from monument peak to gardnerville back in early January, and that was sick.
 
Cell phones fuck with the beacon signal, so like he says, carry a phone, but keep it turned OFF until you find everyone.

Besides, chances are that if you're in a slide, you're somewhere where a phone is useless. In-bounds is USUALLY not where you'll get caught.
 
yeah, it is really important. If I died because my partner had his cell phone on in his pack while he was search for me I would be really pissed....................

but dead. So keep the phones off!!
 
id like to pick this stuff up but i got no one to go with, and theres no point if i dont got someone to go bc with. lazy ass friends.

who skis baker that wants to go bc with me.
 
Radar Tower area down the eastern/southern aspect facing carson...you end up in a long run out of a creek bed that opens into some ranchland near 395.

Not Mt.Rose (proper) but Mt. Rose ski area. Mt. Rose proper is sick and i skin that a few dozen times a year and ski down to the power lines which bisect the main road.

From the Radar Towers it is sick open south facing avy/rock slide paths that only fill in and hold cold snow every 5 or six years.
 
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